Our Audio expert Damon Iddins was at the Amadou & Mariam
concert (featuring David on guitar) with a small recording setup,
so please find on the iPlayer some mixes of song extracts. They
are designed to accompany video clips shot by Crisis for promotional
use, which we hope to bring you in the future.

Please see the News
and Blog
pages for more details of the one-off show, held in London on
Monday 25th May, which helped raise money for the Crisis 'hidden'
campaign to help the homeless. We hope you enjoy the clips.

 Stuff & Nonsense Ed.

CARBON NEUTRAL DVD

David's live DVD, Remember That Night  Live At The
Royal Albert Hall, is carbon neutral. That is to say, carbon
neutral from the production process, right down to how it is distributed.

This means that attempts will have been made to restore the natural
carbon dioxide balance in the atmosphere by using environmentally-friendly
manufacturing, minimising carbon emissions, and offsetting any
'unavoidable' residue.

As many of you will have seen by now, the DVD is packaged in card,
with only one plastic tray used to carry the discs.

In our attempts to cut back on the use of plastics, we have broken
with industry tradition with both the Blu-ray and the HD-DVD packaging,
by being the first not to use the standard, all-plastic
Amaray box. Card and paper versions have been used instead.

In conjunction with Future Forests, the founding agency behind
CarbonNeutral, and now The
CarbonNeutral Company, this is an ecological initiative
designed to combat global warming.

They measure and reduce excessive carbon dioxide in the environment,
compensating for the amount of CO2 produced through 'unavoidable
emissions', such as driving, flying, manufacture, and electrical
production. They are also involved through forestry sponsorship
and 'technology switch' projects.

In short, the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the manufacture
of the DVD is neutralised through re-forestation and the implementation
of energy saving technologies.

All the carbon dioxide created from producing and distributing,
the DVD will be replaced by oxygen from newly-planted trees.

On An Island was also carbon neutral  the first CD
released by Columbia Records to be manufactured under environmentally-responsible
CarbonNeutral guidelines, in fact.

David was also insistent that Echoes: The Best of Pink Floyd
be carbon neutral, helping to create new forests in India, Mexico,
Scotland, and the USA.

Just as it's very easy  if not somewhat fashionable right
now  to be blasé about the issue of global warming,
it would be just as easy to overlook how crucial it is that musicians,
such as David, consider more sensible, ecologically-sound ways
of presenting and distributing their art.

A standard CD's jewel case contains an awful lot of plastic, hence
the album's cardboard case and lack of the traditional spindle
hub to engage the disc. Environmentally-friendly inks were also
used throughout, and the package was finished with a water-based
lacquer.

Cardboard also weighs a lot less than plastic: a typical plastic
case, with insert, weighs about 80g without the CD, whereas a
typical cardboard wallet weighs just 25g (minus disc).

Cynics may scoff that this will not change the world overnight
and, indeed, it is very difficult to offset the plastic used in
the manufacturing of CDs and DVDs, hence the additional financial
donations made by David and his record companies to help offset
their emissions.

However, with current levels of greenhouse gases higher than at
any time in the past 650,000 years, and eminent scientists agreeing
that something clearly has to be done to try and reduce the amount
of carbon dioxide that we are all putting into the atmosphere,
this is certainly something.

Ever since the looped versions of mystery tunes appeared at
random on DavidGilmour.com, aficionados have been asking for more
information and the chance to replay them.

David wanted some random tracks, based on the songs from On
An Island, to appear on the site in a random manner, so Damon
Iddins and Devin Workman  two of the engineers based at
David's Astoria studio  worked on the creation of 65 standalone
pieces, derived from the backing tracks of the 'OAI' sessions.

If you listen closely to most of the music loops, you can tell
which track was the inspiration  although some of them are
fairly far-out (the titles, too, may give the game away!).

We hope you enjoy the player!

 Stuff & Nonsense Ed.

DAVID'S UK MUSIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTION SPEECH

David
was proud to be at the third UK Music Hall of Fame Awards
on Tuesday 14th November 2006, and honoured to be able
to induct one of his musical heroes: legendary Beach Boy,
Brian Wilson.

The UK Music Hall of Fame recognises the most important
artists of the past 50 years from all over the world. Other
inductees were Sir George Martin, Led Zeppelin, Prince,
James Brown, Rod Stewart, Dusty Springfield, and Bon Jovi.
They were selected by a panel of 60 artists, music industry
executives, broadcasters, and journalists. David was himself
inducted, with Pink Floyd, in 2005.

Here's David's induction speech in full.

Good evening.

The first band I actually formed when I was a young lad was with
some like-minded souls from my home town. We wanted to sing harmony,
the harmony we wanted to sing was Beach Boys' harmony and that
love of singing harmony remains with me today. The man who was
the main inspiration for that love is the man we're honouring
here tonight, Mr. Brian Wilson.

Even in those very early days of the Beach Boys, songs like In
My Room and Don't Worry Baby were giving indications
that Brian Wilson wanted to paint with a much more colourful palette
than was offered by the surf music that he was so adept at.

His brilliance leapt from strength to strength over a very short
period. In little over four years, he mastered the arts of songwriting,
record production, orchestral arrangements, and every form of
studio trickery to culminate with the wonderful songs on Pet
Sounds, like Good Vibrations, Heroes and Villains,
and the sublime Surf's Up. These last three were, of course,
intended for his legendary Smile project that was finally
completed and released in 2004, nearly 40 years after its inception.

Shall we watch a little film?

[Film plays]

Ladies and gentlemen, a true genius...Brian Wilson.

A SHOW FOR SOLIDARITY

Performing
for 100,000 people  with a 38-piece orchestra, no
less  in a country you have never played before
is already quite special. But the Gdańsk concert
on August 26th is really special, as President Lech Walesa
and Pawel Adamowicz, Major of Gdańsk, have invited
David and his band to perform a special show marking the
26th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity.

The Solidarity trade union began the revolution which would
topple communism in Europe. Led by Lech Walesa, the movement
started by the Gdańsk shipyard workers brought the
end of communism in Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall
and hence the end of the Cold War.

A trade union with some 10 million members, representing almost
40% of the adult population, it undeniably set off a chain reaction
across Eastern Europe, which led eventually to a peaceful revolution
and a victory for democracy and human rights.

Lech Walesa went on to become the first president of post-communist
Poland.

The Polish workers rebelled against oppression and injustice 
even after martial law was declared, Solidarity was suspended
and most of its leaders imprisoned.

Their courage and determination has inspired many, as this revolution
was a non-violent example of regime change by way of negotiation,
proving that the old establishment could be brought down without
the use of force.

Solidarity continues to act as a deep source of hope for workers
worldwide in the struggle for workers' rights, a just society
and, ultimately, a better world.

David is extremely proud, honoured and excited at the prospect
of performing in Gdańsk for such a very special occasion.

In thanking Solidarity and the Major of Gdańsk for the invite,
David said: "Myself and millions of others will forever associate
Solidarity with the dramatic events of 1989 and remember the courage
and determination of its members to bring democracy to Poland.
It will be the first time that I've played a concert in Poland
and I'm looking forward to it very much".

We hope you are, too.

 Features Editor

STEVE KNEE: DESIGNING 'ON AN ISLAND'

David Gilmour will always be associated with Pink Floyd and rightly
so, but On An Island is a solo album and so, with regards
to the artwork, I didn't want to make any reference to Floyd,
if at all possible. The album imagery throughout the CD package
reflects not only the music, but also the soul behind it. The
music is light of touch, soulful and reflective, and this is what
I tried to convey throughout the artwork.

The brief was to create a visual landscape that would accompany
the music  not to design something separate, but integrate
the packaging with the music, for a complete experience. I used
uncoated paper throughout, cloth spine and a hardback book format
for a more tactile feel, as opposed to a standard 'plastic' jewel
case CD.

A number of covers were submitted for David's consideration, but
ultimately the final cover was probably the simplest, from a visual
standpoint  the lone silhouetted figure of David on an
island...on a sea of blue, with the moon behind him. I wanted
to convey a feeling of isolation and reflection with maybe a hint of hope, and so a blue and black colour palate was used with the
off white of the paper coming through as the moon. With the birds,
I wanted to play with our perceptions; depending on your point
of view, the birds are either flying toward the island (bringing
hope) or away from it (adding to the isolation). I guess it depends
on your own psyche  is the glass half empty or half full  as to what you see in the cover.

When you hear David's music, the space between the notes is just
as important as the notes themselves, and so I wanted to strip
down the graphics as much as possible. This is a personal album
and I have tried to reflect that in the artwork, with many of
the images coming from David's own photo albums. By combining
photography with hand-drawn elements on textured backgrounds with
a hint of colour, I wanted everything to look rough and sketchy,
but with a sense of space...

WHY CROSBY, STILLS & NASH ARE STILL IMPORTANT

David Gilmour didn't just pick David Crosby and Graham Nash out
of a lineup when he invited them to contribute to On An Island.
They had already set a standard for three-part harmony in pop
music with their debut Crosby Stills & Nash in 1969. Each
was a pivotal force in their previous groups  Crosby with
folk-rock pioneers The Byrds, Stills in West Coast soundscapers
Buffalo Springfield, and Nash as leader of Manchester hitmakers
The Hollies.

Crosby and Nash had both left their bands to pursue a more radical
musical direction, while Buffalo Springfield imploded under commercial
pressures and the conflict of having two leaders. (The other leader,
Neil Young, would ironically join and rejoin CSN to create various
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young entities over the years.) At first
sight the Crosby Stills & Nash album was a natural consequence
of three singers getting together in the Californian sun, but
at the time it wasn't obvious at all, no matter how inured we
became later to the stream of Asylum-signed troubadours promoting
the mellower side of West Coast rock. FM Radio's success over
the preceding years had provided a platform for agit-prop bands
like the MC5, and long hair was still very much a badge of iconoclastic
individualism quite likely to lead to abuse and confrontation,
even in the most liberal towns. The Vietnam War was very much
an issue, while the corruption of the Nixon administration had
yet to be exposed.

In short, it wasn't the optimum time to be long-haired and outspoken.
Stephen Stills had already penned a snapshot of the 1966 LA Sunset
Strip showdown between strip denizens and the LAPD  For
What It's Worth  but each of CSN would author material
showing which way up their flag was flying. Graham Nash's Marrakesh
Express, Our House and Teach Your Children are
extremely well-known and very melodic, but he is also the author
of Military Madness (on his debut solo album), while Crosby
contributed to CSN's Long Time Gone, referring to the assassination
of RFK, and Almost Cut My Hair to CSN&Y. Neil Young wrote Ohio, released within weeks of the US National Guard's
shooting of four students at a Kent State, Ohio, University anti-war
protest in May 1970. Stephen Stills of course penned Find The
Cost Of Freedom, most recently performed by Crosby and Nash
with David Gilmour on David's North American tour.

So the licence to wear whatever you like, get drunk in public,
and indulge in an opinion (such as this one, for instance) on
a public forum isn't something handed out at will  it was
won by a generation of activists with slightly loftier ideals
struggling to break the hegemony and secrecy of repressive governments.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the legacy of CSN (&Y) is musical,
not political. There is a strong tradition of harmony in pop music,
its more prominent exponents usually being related, such as The
Everly Brothers, The Beach Boys, and Neil & Tim Finn. However
it's still very difficult to put together a band in which disparate
elements are greater than the sum of the parts, and to perform
material in three-part harmony, throughout the verses as well
as the choruses, is a challenge that is mostly resisted. The sound
of CSN in full voice is a glorious exposition of melodic possibilities:
emotional, uplifting  alchemy, in fact. Perhaps it's not
surprising that there seem to be so few following in their footsteps,
although every other band that includes any kind of harmony, from
The Storys to Turin Brakes, is hailed as 'the new Crosby, Stills
& Nash'.

If you feel like rediscovering the work of David Crosby, Stephen
Stills and Graham Nash, with or without Neil Young, their classic
first album has just been re-issued, and there is a Best Of that also serves as an introduction to their catalogue. You'll
see that the opportunity for David Gilmour to create a 'Crosby,
Gils & Nash' vocal trio isn't just the chance to harmonise with
two masters of their craft, it's also a homage to a tradition
in which they are yet to be surpassed.

 Stuff & Nonsense Ed.

THE BLOG! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? UH... ABSOLUTELY SOMETHING!

Prompted by a curmudgeonly comment on The Blog, it seemed
appropriate to jot down a few words about the gestation of the
site. DavidGilmour.com is a musical artist's Web site, and as
such it fulfils a few reasonable expectations: it has a discography;
a list of live appearances; a biography; and a few items related
to the current album release. No-one really expects the artist
himself to put mouse to pad and reveal his daily thoughts 'twixt
Weetabix and Horlicks (though some of course do, mostly Horlicks).

However, there has been a real desire on David's part to make
this a multi-dimensional site, with timely surprises and interesting
visuals. The hard-working team of editors do strive to make this
happen, but are so often let down by the rigid Web technology
which has to take into account PCs as well as Macs, personal screen
resolutions, and at least four different Web browsers.

The addition of The Blog was a last-minute fix to enable
the Features Editor to post new Polly Samson photographs each
day over Christmas. There was some discussion about not enabling
the 'Comments' button, in case the site degenerated into the illiterate
mud-slinging that forced the closure of the Pink Floyd forum.

In our view, that hasn't happened, and solely due to the Herculean
(actually more Sisyphean) efforts of the Features Editor, the
'Comments' area is now a positive place for feedback, quips, competitions
and, yes, criticism. Nobody likes to be criticised, but if there
is injustice the Gilmourauders are keen to sort it out. So far
we've been able to help the Mermaid Two, Bran from Croatia when
TicketOne sent his ticket astray, and just as importantly, Sony
and EMI in focussing their marketing efforts with local feedback.

One thing is clear, just as with publishing a daily newspaper
 you can't please everyone. Some people think the tone is
too shallow; some think allowing criticism of fellow concertgoers
is gratuitous; everyone wants to speak directly and personally
to David and Polly.

Well, in a way they do speak directly to the artist, and the feedback
we get has a much wider audience than just regular bloggers. What's
remarkable is the openness of expression regarding David Gilmour's
art, which plainly moves people in a way that is rare in the modern
world. The simplicity of language in which comments are phrased
doesn't diminish the intensity of feeling. Personally, I never
miss the daily utterings, no matter how cringe worthy, and I think
the world would be a much duller place without Rudders, Nickster,
Angelo Ortiz, Clemens, Lucia, Frank Par, Ian Pearson, and the
many other Blog irregulars.

This isn't an unmoderated fan's free for all, it's a site that
first and foremost (and unashamedly) promotes David Gilmour. But
it is open to the honest expression of reactions to David and
Polly's music, and as such I think it does a good job. Long may
it flourish.

 Stuff & Nonsense Ed.

P.S. Yes, I know a Blog is strictly speaking a single person's
Web log or diary, but you know what we mean.

ON THE NATURE OF POPULARITY

We all know that there are lies, damned lies, and the answer you
give to: 'does this make me look fat?' But we all look in the
mirror, and maybe it's no bad thing to take the odd snapshot to
find whether you're in the slow lane or just about to be pulled
over by the highway patrol for speeding ahead of the pack.

Our Webmaster (from the extremely reasonable JABEYE.com) has pulled
up a few statistics re: DavidGilmour.com for us to ponder. Don't
ask where he got them  probably out of his hat, and if so,
he's to be commended on his wardrobe.

At any rate, let's have a look at the Web world, given that we're
talking only English language sites, and there's bound to be a
skewing towards youth-oriented sites, as early adopters of technology
tend to be younger. Okayyyyy.... Number 1  Yahoo.com 
fair enough. PinkFloyd.com is at 111,225 in the English-speaking
Web world, and PinkFloyd.co.uk at 91,788, which is pretty good,
considering the plethora of local sites, sales sites and entertainment
options. Then we've got long-standing fan site Brain-Damage.co.uk
(which of course covers all the PF musicians) at 89,997, so where's
DavidGilmour.com? Wow! It's at 49,892, up by a massive
137,000 in its world ranking over the last four weeks.

That puts us ahead of Mary J. Blige (100,868), Kanye West (109,034),
Natasha Bedingfield (257,415) and Roger-Waters.com (313,582).
To be fair, some of those will be record company sites, which
tend not to change much, and we have our daily blog to pull in
the eyeballs. Talking of which, the blog is actually hosted by
a different site, (musicblog.co.uk), which ranks at 148,506. Doesn't
sound great, until you realise that it's jumped by 430,000 places
in the last three months, entirely due to DavidGilmour.com, which
constitutes 78% of their blog traffic. The site also hosts artist
blogs like those of Doves and The Magic Numbers, so we're in good
company.

Before we start resting on any laurels, however, let's have a
quick look at who we're trailing.

James Blunt, the successful balladeer de nos jours, is at 24,342,
followed by (chosen at random) Green Day (26,117), Eminem (29,331)
and Britney (40,328). Even 'googlee.com' (sic) is at 36,000. Presumably
this reflects the number of bad typists there are operating on
the Web at any time. We�re only just pipped by Kelly Clarkson,
though, who is at 48,325, so I figure that if we bump up the controversy
quotient of the site and link to a few tabloids like The UK Sun
(704), and the US National Enquirer (17,799), we should be at
48,000th in the world in no time at all. We might even beat www.googlee.com...

 Stuff & Nonsense Ed.

NEW 'STUFF' ANYWAY  'NONSENSE' TO FOLLOW...

Welcome to a new part of DavidGilmour.com, which has been a while
in the planning, but hopefully will be long-running. The idea
is to have an area where we can mention opportunities to check
out various things, and highlight related or non-related items
or issues.

If you live in North America, and are eagerly anticipating David's
visit to a town within 1,000 miles of you, then you will want
to know what merchandise is available at the shows.

Supplies of David Gilmour merchandise are now available, courtesy
of official merchandisers Anthill Trading. Please click the Fan
Fare link on the main site's navigation, and you will be led
into the world of Anthill Trading, and thence to a selection of
items with an On An Island theme.

There are two supply centres, one for North America and one for
the UK & Europe.

If you have a ticket for any of David's shows, you will also see
other items on sale there, including the excellent Tour Programme
which features band profiles by your very own Features Editor.

There have been some comments about the price of the merchandise.
The T-shirts in particular are priced higher than other artists'
merchandise, and this is because they are sourced from 'Fair Trade'
sources or the local equivalent. In Europe, the idea is to source
from Fair Trade suppliers, and in North America from suppliers
that adhere to a strict code of 'compliance' with fair trade ideals.
The effect is that more of your money is channelled to the actual
local producers of the cotton, and more money is spent on environmentally-friendly
inks and processes, including the use of organic, unbleached fabrics.
The lovely Tour Programme, for instance, is printed on paper from
sustainable sources and printed with vegetable inks.

We will be adding to this section with more items, thoughts, photos,
and comments in the inimitable DavidGilmour.com style, so please
look out for more thought-provoking elements, and perhaps the
odd tongue-in-cheek hoax...